Barcelona (3) v (1) Juventus
You would have got long odds on this result before the match kicked off. Barcelona manager Marc Ritchie though has finally found the correct formula to allow Barcelona to compete with the big names again and this was the perfect example. After only 9 mins Barca had a dream start thanks to a goal from Corrado Grabbi. It was Grabbi's strike that separated the two sides at half time and it wasn't until the 71st minute that the next goal was scored after both sides battled for the all important second goal of this game. It came from Juventus, when Patrick Kluivert stepped up to score from the penalty spot, making it 1-1. Whilst the Juve fans were celebrating drawing level, Barcelona hit back 3 mins after Kluivert's equaliser when unlikely goal hero Bert Konterman restored Barca's lead. Then with 7 mins remaining as Juve looked for another equaliser, the game was put beyond them when Italian superstar Christian Vieri scored to make it a stunning score line for a rejuvenated Barcelona. Barcelona, if they continue in this way and have a large stroke of luck, could finish as high as 5th, while Juventus will look to next week's certain 3-pointer against already relegated Lecce as the perfect tonic to get back on the championship trail.
Benfica (3) v (0) Valencia
This was an expected result, but Benfica still had to go out and do what was needed with a lot of pressure on them from their fans, desperate to clinch their first league crown and still on course for an historic quadruple trophy haul. Five mins into the match and the Benfica fans could relax as Marcelo Otero gave the Portuguese side the lead. It wasn't long after this, 11 mins to be exact, that the Benfica crowd could really start to celebrate as Otero scored his second of the game to put the match beyond a Valencia side lacking in belief, heart & leadership. On 38 mins the game was over. Dutchman Pierre Van Hooijdonk making it 3-0 to the home side before half time. In the second half the game was like a training session for the Benfica team and at the end of 90 mins they could celebrate the possibility of closing in on the league championship, while knocking Valencia's goals conceded tally to minus 24!
Internazionale (1) v (1) AS Roma
Ali Rea's Roma continue to defy the critics and pundits with another brilliant result away to champions Inter. The champions still have the ability to dominate a game in terms of possession and chances in front of goal, but for reasons that escape the fans, players & boss Tony Anderson, they are just not scoring when they need to the most. This game was another example of that. After a bright opening by the home team it was their Italian counterparts that took the lead when the outstanding Antonio Conte scored on 25 mins to make it 0-1. Inter of course fought back and were back in the game on 38 mins thanks to a goal from Spanish winger Ivan De La Pena making it 1-1 at the break. Unfortunately for Inter, more so than Roma, neither side could find a telling strike to be the winner and that allowed Real Madrid to leapfrog Inter into 4th in the table, while Roma remain a respectable 7th.
Lecce (1) v (3) Real Betis
For Real Betis manager Chris Bickley this result was a relief more than anything else. Yes, they did not escape relegation, but in all honesty, not many people really expected them to in the last few weeks. Their performances against the bigger sides in Southern Europe in recent weeks has hinted that they were ready to take apart someone in the near future, but Betis' good form has just turned out to be too little too late. They had the lead in 13 mins when inspirational signing Mbo Mpenza opened the scoring for the Spaniards. On the half hour mark the travelling support were celebrating again when Savo Milosevic, one of Betis' best performers this season, made it 0-2. In the second half Lecce gave themselves a lifeline when Alessandro Pellicori scored on 58 mins to make it 1-2. However as so often happened with Lecce this season, they failed to build on this and the game was finally put beyond them in the 75th minute when Elias Euller made it 1-3 to Real Betis. Both teams are now relegated, but congratulations to both of them for adding to the excitement of Southern Europe this season and hopefully, they will be back.
Porto (1) v (1) Panathinaikos
The naivety of youth may turn out to spell the end of Porto's championship hopes, or worse, see them finish outside the top 3 altogether. On 80 mins, one of Portuguese football's brightest young stars, 20 year old Helder Postiga reacted foolishly to a rash tackle by Panathinaikos forward Nenad Mladenovic, by stamping on the target man's leg, earning him a straight red card and reducing his team mates to unnecessary pressure which resulted in a huge equaliser. Things had started well for Porto. After the first 45 mins of no scoring they finally took the lead on 59 mins, when Fernando Cavenaghi scored against a well drilled defensive Panathinaikos side who had performed exceptionally well up until this point. It appeared as though Porto were going to take 3 points that would move them to within a single point of leaders Juventus, however, Postiga's moment of madness saw Porto put under intense pressure by a Pana side filled with belief, knowing they were up against 10 men. It took just 5 mins before they were level thanks to England international Darius Vassell on 85 mins. That spelled the end of the scoring in the match and possibly too the end of Porto's championship hopes. For Panathinaikos it showed once again the steady and impressive progress they are making under new manager Jon Harris.
Real Madrid (2) v (1) Milan
What was a meeting of two giants in world football turned out to be a brilliant win for Real Madrid as they climbed to 4th in the table to give them a realistic, if outside, shot at the championship. This game was so close that it wasn't until 2 mins from half time that the deadlock was broken, the perfect time for Jose Guti to give Madrid the lead going in at the break. In the second half Imre Szabics, a consistent performer for Milan this season, made it 1-1 on 59 mins. The rest of the match was like a game of chess, with both sides looking for that all important opening in the opposition defence. On 83 mins Fernando Morientes found that opening in the Milan back four and he slotted home the winner in the match to move Madrid up one place above Internazionale in the title race.
Top Scorers
1st. 26 - Rivaldo of Benfica
2nd. 26 - Thierry Henry of Bordeaux
3rd. 25 - Raul of Porto
4th. 23 - Ebbe Sand of AS Monaco
5th. 22 - Sylvain Wiltord of Chelsea
6th. 21 - Marc Overmars of Barcelona
7th. 21 - Davor Suker of Everton
8th. 20 - Javier Saviola of Bristol City
9th. 20 - Francesco Totti of Real Madrid
10th. 19 - Marcelo Salas of IFK Gothenborg
11th. 19 - Edmundo of Lazio
12th. 17 - Ruslan Pimenov of IFK Gothenborg
13th. 17 - Fabrizio Ravanelli of Oxford Utd
14th. 17 - Emile Heskey of Man Utd
15th. 17 - Delron Buckley of Porto
A crowd of 149,300 fans turned up in Benfica's home stadium to watch the first European Cup final between two sides steeped in history when Benfica hosted their Southern European arch rivals, FC Porto in the European final that everyone wanted to see. It would have been no surprise if the likes of Internazionale, Juventus, Chelsea or Manchester United had been in this most prestigious of finals, but as it was, it was Portugal's finest that locked horns.
The teams for the first leg lined up as follows:
Benfica
Goalkeeper - Santiago Canizares
Defence - Ozat Umit, Alan Wright, Alain Goma & Gustavo Nery
Midfield/Wide Men - Josep Guardiola, Juan Roman Riquelme, Rivaldo & Marcelo Zalayeta
Forwards - Marcelo Otero & Pierre Van Hooijdonk
Porto
Goalkeeper - Rustu Recber
Defence - Albert Nadj, Jose Antonio Chamot, Ivan Hurtado & Kevin Hofland
Midfield/Wide Men - Menegazzo Fernando, Nuno Capucho, Peter Lovenkrands & Delron Buckley
Forwards - Raul & Fernando Cavenaghi
The home crowd were ecstatic after only 7 mins gone as this European Cup final exploded. Juan Roman Riquelme burst down the left wing, avoiding Chamot as he went and whipped in a vicious cross. Recber had no desire to come and collect and left it to Hurtado to deal with. Unfortunately for Porto, Marcelo Otero had the better of Hurtado as he met the ball on the volley with his left foot, rifling a shot past Recber and giving Benfica the perfect start.
With the Benfica fans still singing and taunting their rival fans, Porto hit back. On 12 mins, Cavenaghi received a square pass from Lovenkrands and darted to the corner of the 18 yard box before chipping a delightful pass onto the penalty spot. Alan Wright beat Umit to cover the run of Raul who was attempting to meet Cavenaghi's pass. However, Raul managed to get his back to Wright, collect the pass and shield it, before turning on the spot and sliding a shot at the far bottom corner of Canizares' goal. The keeper almost had a hand to it, but the ball skipped between him and the post and trundled over the line to bring Porto level at 1-1 with less than 15 mins played.
The match was close at this stage, but then Porto began carving out some opportunities. First, Delron Buckley received a pass down the line from Hurtado, avoided a challenge by Nery, but was then floored by what looked like an elbow from Riquelme. The Argentine was booked for the challenge and Raul took the free kick. The ball was lobbed over the wall by Raul to the feet of Buckley, being pressured by Guardiola all the way. On the turn though the Porto player hit a tremendous drive, but fortunately for Benfica, and unfortunately for Nery, the strike caught him in the face and was cleared as Nery slowly regained his feet to continue.
Buckley was at the centre of another Porto attack on 36 mins, when he fooled Wright with a delightful dummy before heading into space along the right touch-line and whipping in a cross. Capucho attacked the ball and met it with his head 8 yards out, but a fantastic reaction save from Canizares sent the ball over the bar to earn Porto a corner.
Fernando took Porto's corner and drilled the ball to the near post. Buckley got in front of Wright and flicked it on into the penalty area. It was a fantastic pass, one which Cavenaghi made full use of as he rose head and shoulders above Goma to power a header up and over the stretching Canizares to make it 2-1. There was little action in front of goal for the remainder of the first half and Porto went into the changing rooms with a one goal advantage.
There were no changes at half time by either manager and the teams kicked off the second half with Porto in the driving seat with two vital away goals. The second half was nowhere near as exciting as the first 45 as Benfica struggled to break down a solid Porto back four. However, on 58 mins, it was Benfica's star player on the day that carved an opening for his side again. Riquelme almost jogged past Chamot on the left wing and lifted a powerful cross into the Porto area. Hooijdonk mis-timed his run though and the Benfica fans groaned as the ball soared over his head to be cleared by Nadj. That was Hooijdonk's last involvement of the game and 2 mins later he was substituted, like for like, with Sigurd Rushfeldt as manager Gary Hargreaves tried to freshen things up, up front.
What followed then was a midfield battle with neither side creating anything worthy of note, as the Benfica fans egged their side on for an equaliser and the Porto fans begged their side to keep things tight at the back. Helder Postiga replaced Cavenaghi up front on 75 mins, Ivica Vastic went on up front on 77 mins for Riquelme, with Benfica now playing three forward and Adrian Ilie also replacing Marcelo Otero. Reinvaldo Pena then replaced Raul with 5 mins remaining as Paul Anderson attempted to run down the clock, but a minute later Benfica had a golden opportunity to level the score. Rushfeldt finally made his presence felt in the match and burst forward from the centre circle, leaving Capucho & Fernando trailing in his wake. He played it square to Guardiola who was supporting and the Spaniard took one touch to send Adrian Ilie down the line to go past Chamot in a one-on-one battle. Ilie nipped past the Argentine defender and delivered a beautiful cross into the Porto box. Pena got to it first, but his header clear was weak, landing at the foot of Vastic on the edge of the box. With no one around him and time to control it, Vastic hit it first time and sent the ball into row 'Z' as manager Gary Hargreaves tore his hair out in frustration and had to be calmed down by the fourth official.
Vastic's chance was the last of the match as neither side could create anything in the remaining minutes and the European Cup Final, first leg ended; Benfica (1) Porto (2).
Ratings & Stats:
Benfica
8* - Canizares
8* - Umit
8* - Wright
8* - Nery
8* - Goma
8* - Guardiola
8* - Riquleme
8* - Rivaldo
8* - Zalayeta
8* - Otero
8* - Hooijdonk
Porto
8* - Recber
8* - Nadj
8* - Chamot
8* - Hurtado
8* - Hofland
8* - Fernando
8* - Capucho
9* - Lovenkrands
9* - Buckley
8* - Raul
9* - Cavenaghi
Scorers
(7) Otero
(12) Raul
(37) Cavenaghi
Possession - Benfica (42%) Porto (58%)
Man of the Match - Peter Lovenkrands (Porto)
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2nd. 36 pts, GD +14 - Porto
3rd. 36 pts, GD +14 - Benfica
4th. 32 pts, GD +1 - Real Nadrid
5th. 31 pts, GD +8 - Internazionale (Champions)
6th. 27 pts, GD +3 - Milan
7th. 25 pts, GD +4 -AS Roma
8th. 23 pts, GD -2 - Panathinaikos
9th. 22 pts, GD -2 - Barcelona
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10th. 12 pts, GD -12 - Real Betis
11th. 10 pts, GD -15 - Lecce
12th. 8 pts, GD -24 - Valencia
2nd. 40 pts, GD +10 - Ath Madrid
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3rd. 35 pts, GD +11 - Celta Vigo
4th. 34 pts, GD +8 - Lazio
5th. 34 pts, GD +7 - Deportivo
6th. 23 pts, GD -5 - Boavista
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7th. 20 pts, GD -5 - Alaves
8th. 19 pts, GD -5 - Galatasaray
9th. 19 pts, GD -13 - Sampdoria
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10th. 18 pts, GD -6 - Real Sociedad
11th. 16 pts, GD -4 - Bologna
12th. 11 pts, GD -16 - Espanyol
2nd. 38 pts, GD +13 - Udinese
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3rd. 32 pts, GD +8 - Atlanta
4th. 31 pts, GD +2 - Parma
5th. 30 pts, GD +3 - Spt Lisbon
6th. 23 pts, GD +2 - Bari
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7th. 21 pts, GD -1 - Olympiakos
8th. 19 pts, GD -7 - Real Zaragoza
9th. 18 pts, GD -8 - Fiorentina
10th. 17 pts, GD -6 - Napoli
11th. 14 pts, GD -10 - Athletico Bilboa
12th. 13 pts, GD -10 - Torino